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Published in the State of North Carolina. Copyright 2002-2009.

The preponderance of research clearly shows that homework for elementary students does not make a difference in student achievement. It is hard to believe that a strategy used so extensively has no foundation. Even the most ardent supporters of homework have only been able to produce evidence of associative rather than causal relationships. In addition, it is not surprising that there is no research that demonstrates that homework increases a childâ€™s level of understanding, improves their attitude towards school or inspires a love of learning. For a large number of students we know the opposite is true– large amounts of homework stifle motivation, diminish a childâ€™s love of learning, turn reading into a chore, negatively affect the quality of family time, diminish creativity, and turn learning to drudgery.

Production on the new chips is slated to start in the second half of next year, Intel said, putting it ahead of AMD (Charts), which has slated 45 nanometer production for mid-2008, according to Reuters.

The fact is that the state has said abortion is not immoral, but that doesn’t end the debate, nor the struggle to end abortion which, nevertheless is increasingly held as a moral outrage. The same debate once raged over slavery. In 2005, Germany legalized prostitution, and gave it full legitimacy as a source of employment such that an out of work Information Specialist who was drawing unemployment benefits while seeking a job through the state’s job bank, was threatened with termination of her unemployment benefits if she refused an interview with a brothel. After all, it’s no longer considered immoral, right? Are we so numb that we even need to ask this question? While states are supposedly trying to end human sexual trafficking (slavery), this state apparently wants to give it the stamp of legitimacy and the force of law.

In this press release HSLDA implies that homeschoolers are not capable of dealing with over zealous school officials on their own. I guess the 80% of homeschooling families that are not members of HSLDA are screwed.

The Louis familyâ€™s experience should serve as an example to all family who are homeschooling or planning to homeschool. If local public school officials seek to meet with you and review your curriculum, you do not need to comply, and should contact our offices immediately.

Taking charge of your children’s education also means taking charge of understanding the legal requirements. They are so simple in most states that needing a lawyer to handle them for you is ridiculous. That’s not to say that occasionally a lawyer is needed, because sometimes they are. However, one silly letter from the local Superintendent is not a crisis that requires the services of a lawyer. It requires a firm response from a homeschooler that understands the law they are homeschooling under. If they continue to hassle you, then you get a lawyer.

Parker was arrested and jailed in Lexington in April 2005 over his request â€“ and the school’s refusal â€“ to notify him when adults discuss homosexuality or transgenderism with his 6-year-old kindergartner. That despite a state law requiring such notification.

Not quite. He was arrested for trespassing when he refused to leave the school after his “requests” were denied.

Parker said he met with school officials to gain those assurances and then refused to leave until he got them. Parker stayed at Estabrook School for more than two hours, according to Superintendent William J. Hurley, as officials and Lexington police urged him to leave. Finally, they arrested him for trespassing.

Parker, who refused to bail himself out of jail Wednesday night, said he spent the night in custody to prove a point.

But why bother letting reality interfere with a good persecution yarn? Got to keep up the good fight against that “well-known liberal bias.”

Any home educators organizing a spelling bee as part of the Scripp’s National Bee should take note that there is now a $99 fee ($99? What is this? Best Buy?) in order to play. HEKs entering as individuals will pay $10.

Wife Swap (ewwww!) features a homeschooling family. This 2nd half of a two-parter should be loads of fun. Lydia watched it last week and reported that the HEK was a quiet girl who concentrates her time and energies on ballet. Of course, that meant the new mom got to use the “S” word a lot.

DNPE has instituted (revived) Community Record Review Meetings for homeschoolers. Currently DNPE is sending letters to second year homeschoolers in NC in various parts of the state requesting that homeschoolers participate in them.

Cumberland County homeschoolers have been requested to meet with a representative from DNPE on March 5-7 at the Headquarters Library. This is the first group in Region 9 that has been selected, but in all likelihood there will be more over the coming months.

I am listing facts for the purpose of allaying fear AND providing information so that each individual family can make an informed decision as to whether they participate and how they participate.

1. The meetings are voluntary.
2. The state has the right to inspect your homeschool records.3. The state is free to seek another method of inspecting your records.
4. The state does not have the authority to inspect your children, your curriculum, or any of your school work.
5. These meetings have taken place before (many years ago) without any negative repercussions for homeschoolers.

Please use your own judgment when deciding whether to attend or not. NCHE is officially asking people to participate but each family must consider all the facts and make an informed decision for themselves.

If a family decides to attend the meeting and wishes to have another person attend the meeting with you, I am willing to accompany you IF MY SCHEDULE PERMITS.

Anticipated FAQ: If my family were requested to participate in the Record Review meetings, I would probably return the letter saying that I would participate. I would then bring to the meeting only what is required by law: attendance and test records. I would also try to be pleasant to the government representative since as a Christian I am to respect those in authority over me.

If you have any other questions, concerns, or requests, please contact me by email, if at all possible. Address: region9@nche.com. Phone number (only if you cannot email): 910-xxx-xxxx.

Sandi Crosmun
NCHE Region 9 Director

And my emailed response:

Sandi,

This was forwarded to me. I understand what you’re trying to do– dispel confusion about the meetings– but I think you’ve actually contributed to the confusion in your third point. The state (i.e., DNPE) is “free to seek another method of inspecting your records” in the sense that Rod Helder is free to demand that we all bow down and worship DNPE. That doesn’t mean that we have to or should even give it a second thought. These meetings are extra-legal. Period. Why would we want to give DNPE that first inch?

Home educators are, of course, free to do what they want, even if it has potential negative consequences for all of our freedoms. But as for me and my house, Rod can pound sand.

Delaware is considering mandating that insurance companies that write health policies in the state include Gardasil in their formulary. Yeah, this is anything but libertarian. But neither is the insurance/health market efficient.

If it weren’t so tragic, it would be laughable to hear politicians talk about passing legislation to make human embryonic stem cell research ethical. It’s not possible. Every form of this research requires destroying human life in order to obtain the stem cells.

Whether using leftover embryos from fertility clinics (they should pass a law to make producing extra embryos illegal) or cloning human embryos for the purpose of killing them, human lives must be sacrificed.

It can never be ethical to spend precious funds or taxpayer dollars on a form of research that is devoid of successes after 20-plus years of effort. And it is looking likely that there never will be any successes with these cells because of their propensity toward tissue destruction, tumor formation and rejection in experimental animal models.

It is immoral and cruel to give people who suffer illnesses false hope by continuing this failed line of research.

That money could be more wisely spent on adult, umbilical cord, placental and amniotic fluid stem cells. But don’t take my word for it. Check it out at www.EmbryosArePeopleToo.com or www.stemcellresearch.org.

At edspresso.com, James Forman Jr. calls for a movement that will bring parents who have abandoned the g-schools in search of something better back into the system:

I believe our response has to be collective, which is why it cries out for the leadership of Fenty, his team, and Gray. My colleague at Georgetown and former school board member Chuck Lawrence has written about this. He says parents with options almost always take their kids out of D.C. schools, because they make the decision in isolation. They are afraid that doing otherwise would be to sacrifice their own childâ€™s education because of a philosophical belief in the importance of public education. Realistically they know that alone, they wonâ€™t really be able to improve their local school.

But what if all these neighbors, who are all struggling with these decisions, knew that they would not be alone? What if they knew that around the corner, down the block, next door even . . . other people were making the same commitment to the public school? Of course, not everyone is going to choose the public schools. Some have religious reasons to choose a private school. Others want what they perceive as being the absolute best for their child and have $20,000 a year to spend on it.

But the point isnâ€™t to convince everybody. Even if we got half, or a quarter of parents, to make a different decision we could increase the number of people with a direct investment in the schools.

So we need a city-wide movement (which could be a model for a national movement). And the movement needs leaders. Any takers?

A nice sentiment that can’t (and shouldn’t) work. Sadly, inner city g-schools (and DC is just a bad example of a bad lot) are in such a state of systemic failure that turning them around will be a decades long proposal. We’ve been reforming them for decades already. What kind of parents, having made the decision to abandon ship for the sake of their kids, are going to re-enroll them in the hope that meaningful change is just around the corner? Sure, the educrats, like an abusive spouse, may make all kinds of apologies and promises about how this time it’s going to be different, how this time it will be a true partnership, how this time it really will be all about the kids.

The smart parents– the ones who have already pulled the rip cord and sent their kids to charters or private schools or are home educating– will reject the call as way too little and far too late. And the ones who are making their decisions today, the quarter or half that Forman is pinning his hopes on, need to be given more meaningful choices. That’s how the system will (eventually) fix itself. More charters, more vouchers, more freedom. Yeah, it sucks for the kids who are left behind. But maybe the more altruistic among us can find time to volunteer at our kids’ former schools.

HELENA â€” The Capitol took on a youthful aspect Monday as students from around the state showed up for hearings on bills dealing with home schooling and compulsory public school attendance.

Sen. Don Ryan, D-Great Falls, the sponsor of one of those bills, acknowledged the jam-packed Capitol â€” where well-behaved youngsters packed all the available gallery space, as well as the hallway benches and even the floors â€” with his wry observation that “This is one of the best lobbies in the state of Montana.”

Ryan’s bill would require parents who home-school their children to register with their county public school superintendent. Montana’s home-schooling regulations are so loose in that regard that people fleeing custody fights in other states can simply hide out here and claim to be home-schooling their children, he said.

“I want people to be on record, the next time some little boy or little girl has been hidden away in Montana … to say we think that’s OK,” Ryan said, as he recommended that his own bill be tabled after hearing the extensive opposition to it.

[…]

Despite the hundreds of people visiting the Capitol because of the bill, Sen. Sam Kitzenberg, D-Glasgow, running the hearing in the Senate Education and Cultural Resources Committee, limited testimony to only 15 minutes after hearing that no one had showed up to support the bill.

When he announced the lack of supporters, a cheer went up from the overflow crowd watching on televisions set up in the hallways. Ryan’s bill was eventually tabled on an 8-1 vote, with Ryan the lone “no” vote.

The trend in recent years has been to allow HEKs to play on g-school sports teams. So I find it interesting that Escondido, CA is considering kicking the HEKs off the hockey teams they’re currently allowed to join.

As we liberate ourselves from fear, we find its other side…freedom! Fearing the unknown instead of securing knowledge and truth will continue to suppress the majority of people who cling to past beliefs. When faced with fear, thinking becomes short-circuited.

Fear is a motivator, motivating us to do many things no matter if they are right or wrong. A life of fear is a life spent with â€œwhat-ifs,â€ producing the worst condition to be brought upon us.

Having fear is nothing out of the ordinary; it exists from our cradles to our graves. We canâ€™t escape fear; it is part of our personalities. Love, kindness, compassion, tolerance and peace can be implanted in the psyche of man only when fear and paranormal illusion are removed.

As paraphrased from Bene Gesseritâ€™s â€œLitany Against Fearâ€: We must not fear, it kills the mind bringing obliteration. We must face our fears and permit them to pass on by. Then simply look back at their paths. There will be nothing left when fears have gone.

Only we will remain…Fayetteville: History, fearless heroes, hometown feeling!

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

I got my new RFID-embedded passport a few minutes ago. It came WITHOUT the lead-foil lined envelope that is supposed to protect from skimmers. I was, therefore, forced to improvise. 15 seconds in the microwave caused some very large sparks and the RFID antenna coil burned through the back in several places. I believe it is dead.

Via HSWatch, a really awful bill is pending in the TX legislature. Under the guise of reducing truancy, the bill would change the entire legal basis of home education. Among other sins, this bill would create a new class of schools (homeschools) which would report “truants” to the local educrats.

Does it make any sense at all that SC wants to offer a tax credit of $1000 for parents who don’t send their kids to the g-schools have kids in private schools yet only $500 for parents who don’t send their kids to the g-schools homeschool?

Hoagland said she home-schools her daughter and three sons. She believes public schools donâ€™t teach students how to think critically about such subjects as evolution, and â€œI donâ€™t see it changing.â€

If creationists were really interested in critical thinking they wouldn’t be creationists.

The Government is planning changes to the monitoring of home education. Proposed changes include: a mission statement and clear plan which we stick to, targets, a broad and balanced curriculum, more surveillance and monitoring from the LA to make sure we are “doing it properly”.

Our English brethren and sistren are not, however, taking this lying down. (I say English because the Scots already have their own intrusive oversight system.) More information here.

One needs no better example of the power of unions in New Jersey than the fact that state employees are getting today off for Lincoln’s Birthday as well as next Monday off for Washington’s Birthday. Or Presidents’ Day, as it was called when I was a kid.

It was damned cold standing out in front of the DMV till I figured out what was going on.

Pending legislation in PA would allow nursing mothers, home educators, and several other groups to opt out of jury duty. I’m generally in favor of having small children home and no daycare arrangements be a legitimate reason to get out of serving. But I’d encourage home educators to serve if they possibly can. We’re a not insignificant part of the community. IOW, we’re somebody’s peers.

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Before enrolling for certifications like HP0-W02, it is ideal to first do 3M0-600. However if thinking about going for 000-062, this is not necessary.

HSLDA is banging the drum for American homeschoolers to do something (What?) to “help” German homeschoolers.

Last week, German police and social workers removed 17-year-old home-school student, Melissa Busekros, from her home. Then the authorities proceeded to place the teen in a Nuremberg psychiatric hospital, where she was interrogated by a psychiatrist for more than four hours and finally released.

But as Home School Legal Defense Association (HSLDA) senior counsel Chris Klicka point outs, that was not the end of the studentâ€™s troubles. “Fifteen police officers and some social workers came back, and they removed Melissa, took her into state custody, and put her in the psychiatric ward because the psychiatrist, believe it or not, had concluded she had ‘school phobia.’ It’s just completely ridiculous,” he says. “She’s still in the hospital.”

Klicka says the German government has no sympathy for Christian families who want to home-school their children. He points out that home schooling has been illegal in that country ever since it was banned by Nazi leader and dictator Adolph Hitler.

And unfortunately, the HSLDA attorney notes, incidents targeting home schoolers are increasingly common in Germany today. He says the government has been after home-schooling families, and “there’s over 40 cases that are pending throughout Germany; half of those families have had to flee to Austria or Switzerland or France — nearby countries that do allow home schooling.”

Klicka is urging Christians to heed the biblical command to “help the least of these” by calling the German Embassy in Washington, DC, to protest the German government’s harsh treatment of Melissa Busekros and the many other home-school students and families who are being targeted in that country.

I’ll be in Germany in two weeks. Maybe I’ll drop by the Bundestag and tell them what’s what!